Although we'll probably hear an official announcement from Anker soon, I thought I'd share a sneak peek at a couple of the new products that were shown off in the Anker booth at IFA!

First is the PowerCore+ II 10000. Equipped with one USB-C port (for both input and output) and one USB-A port, this power bank will be capable of 30W power delivery.

Next is the PowerCore+ II 20000. Equipped with one USB-C port (for both input and output) and two USB-A ports, this power bank will be capable of 45W power delivery, which is higher than the current PowerCore+ 26800 PD.

Anker seems to be marketing these as lighter, though no details as to how light were provided. Both power banks also seem to support passthrough charging, although again, details are a little shaky at this point. This could very well mean just a multi-directional USB-C port. No information on pricing was given, however the devices are expected to begin shipping by the end of the year.

What do you think about the new Anker power banks? Are you excited? Personally, I think this is a big opportunity for Anker. If they are fairly light and compact devices, I think Anker's got a winner! I would really like to see a 15000ish mAh option, though - and probably a 60W version for the more powerful laptops, though that would certainly be very bulky and heavy.

I believe they can make a 60W 100Wh. The challenge will be the ergonomics of the shape and the shape's impact on weight. They once made a slab shaped product but they canned it.

The problem to solve:- You can drive about 2A 3.7V = 7.4W per 3400mAh or 12Wh 18650 cell, so you can drive out of 8 cells 96Wh 60W. So yes, 60W output of a 26800mAh is viable from a chemical energy perspective.- The issue is driving 8 cells together in a power bank is going to cause each cell, particularly the 4 in the middle of a 2x4 construction, to become hotter by their proximity to each other within the one powerbank. Heat leads to expansion and you increase chance of failure. - So ironically, the bigger the total amount of energy, due to heat, the less Wattage per unit of energy. So say a 20Ah could be made to be driven to 45W but a 26800mAh to 60W is harder.- You can reduce the thermal problem by not using 18650 cells but say Lithium Polymer, and make a thin slab like product, but then you come up against that a 18650 cylinder is stronger than a Lithium Poly rectangle so to compensate and make a strong product you must thicken up the outer packaging, then you end up with the product being heavier, i.e. a 26.8Ah is more weight than the 34% in weight than it is capacity.

This problem of in effect exponential weight with Wattage you see the Powerhouse. It is 434Wh, vs say a 26800mAh 96Wh, so is 4.5x the energy stored but is 8x the weight.

So then you hit the what is the point of a "portable charger".

I would suggest that you trade off the fact you have portable energy with being less obtuse about its use, to not so much ask for Wattage but, because it is portable, you have it with all the time anyway, you plug it in proactively, early, and accept a slower recharge. I'd prefer to lug lighter portable charger, and not be such as a fool and want a heavier one so I can carry it unplugged for longer.

Personally I would prefer a lighter smaller slower portable charger.

There is an analogy in astrophysics, smaller brown dwarf suns shine potentially for trillions of years but larger blue giants burn in millions of years.

They do make 60W wall chargers now, they spread that energy out across 6 ports, to do it out of 1 port with USB-PD is long overdue. What they did with the Powerport+ QC where they had a fixed energy budget per port, is not going to be appealing, rather what they do with say the Powerport4 where total energy budget is shared across all ports, is my hope.

So say a 4 port 60W wall charger, if you used one of the 4 ports that got all the 60W, it would make sense therefore to have 2 or 3 of the ports USB-PD. If you used 2 of the 4 ports, each port could get 30W, if you used all 4 ports they got 15W each. Then all of that 60W is useful and up to you how you use it.

There is no inherent reason for faster products to cost more, it would need be a supply and demand type cause of price. i.e. people who think a future 60W 26800 is such a fabulous product they buy it fast and drain supply, so that keeps prices up.

I do not see the need for a high wattage portable charger. I see the need for a high wattage charger.

The larger battery laptops which can ingest at 60W last all day off their large batteries so really the battery inside such laptops are deliberately causing no need for a high performance external portable charger. The battery shape inside the laptop is a thin slab to dissipate heat is inside often a metal casing to protect everything inside including the battery. So the laptop is designed to not need you to get benefit from a portable charger.

There is a need for a revolution in higher wattage chargers. If I'm travelling with a laptop which can ingest at 60W, I'd probably be with a phone, possibly a small tablet, and a portable charger for my phone, so if I had a 4 port charger with 60W which can do laptop fast recharging, or slower charge my laptop and recharge my phone, and my BT headphones, and my 10Ah-15Ah of portable charger, then it is a complete system.

To try to make a 60W portable charger will just cause a price I won't pay, and probably a weight I'd not carry. The laptop can last all day anyway, it just needs to recharge itself fast, so the need is for 60W and 100W USB-PD chargers, not portable chargers. You'd be in the stupid situation one laptop full recharge is going to be portable charger of the same weight as the laptop.

Don't follow. Yes I'd expect these to have IQ2. What I'd expect is the USB-C in/out is USB-PD and the USB-A is IQ2.

I'm more interested if they share the same power budget, i.e. when you use the USB-PD port it gives the 30W and 45W for the 10A and the 20A respectively, and when you use the 1 or 2 other IQ2 ports then the Wattage drops. Then that would be the smallest physical size as you're DC budget is shared rather than ringfenced like say their QC products.